Wednesday, 11/18/09--I drove to Westtown School's track for my first real "speed" workout. Notice the quotes; I use the word "speed" loosely. I did a 1.1 mile warm up and stretched before tackling a 8x200 with a 200 meter jog rest in-between each. I had planned to do 10x200, but I got a late start. This workout felt pretty good, particularly since I ran in regular flats, the same shoes I use for road mileage. My times were 32,32,33,33,33,32,32,30 (32 sec avg). My rest wound up being 2:00.
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Looking back at last year, on Thursday, 12/4/08, I did 9 x 200: 33,34,33,32,32,32,31,31,31 (avg 32 sec) with a 300 meter jog rest in-between and a 400 meter jog after the 5th one. Even though the average times are the same and I did one less 200 than last year, I would rate today's workout higher and for a few reasons: 1) relative to last year's, it's earlier in the season, 2) the rest between repeats for today's workout was shorter, 3) I used flats, and 4) there was no 400 meter jog after the 5th repeat.
On Thursday, 12/18/08, I did 8x200 in 32,33,32,31,31,30,30,29 with a 300 meter jog/3-min rest and a 400 meter jog after the 5th one. Even though the average in this case was 31 sec, I would rate today's workout as being on par with this one. The number of repeats was the same, but last year's workout offered greater recovery between repeats. Also, I wore flats today, unlike last year.
Perhaps I am a month ahead of where I was this time last year. My workout this past Tuesday--and other Tuesdays for the matter--have made me doubt this possibility. I will learn more over the next few weeks leading up to the first meet in December. I will try to sneak in similar workouts as those from December 2008 for comparison.
Caveat: The truth is that none of these workouts are that impressive, but they are useful for comparison sake.
For my next interval workout--this Saturday or Sunday, depending on the weather--I plan to do one of my staple 800 meter workouts. That will give me some good information about my fitness for the 800.
Today's total: 1.1 warm-up; 1 mile worth of 200s, 1 mile worth of recovery, .9 cool down. 4 miles
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